{{insights.date}}
{{insights.type}}
{{insights.contentTypeTag}}
Oliver Geiss focuses his practice on competition and foreign direct investment (FDI) laws in the European Union and Germany. He is a member of the firm’s Global Board and actively supports its DEI initiatives in a leading role.
Oliver regularly advises clients from all around the globe on merger control and FDI notifications of cross-border transactions worldwide. He has extensive experience in a variety of industry sectors, including chemicals, automotive, energy and pharmaceuticals.
Comments in directories like The Legal 500 highlight the added value Oliver brings to transactions (“thanks to his contributions, we were able to complete a very challenging project on time”), and state that they “would recommend him to anyone” and elicit praise for his expertise and responsiveness over different time zones.
He has also represented companies in some of the largest cartel investigations before the European Court of Justice, the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office, including air freight, LCD screen, optical disc drives, refrigeration compressors and industrial batteries, as well as in civil damage actions before national courts. Oliver is at the forefront of developments and regularly publishes in this area.
He frequently advises clients on EU state aid law and competition aspects of commercial agreements, such as distribution agreements or joint buying or selling arrangements, the EU public procurement rules, and general EU law aspects such as the fundamental freedom. Oliver regularly appears before the European Court of Justice; for instance, on state aid matters or, recently, a major data protection matter before the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
- Securing global merger control and FDI approvals in a complex acquisition in the semiconductor field.
- Experience before the FDI authorities/ministries and coordinating approvals in Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Spain, Romania, Slovenia, Australia and others.
- Representing clients and coordinating approvals in relation to merger control filings before the European Commission, before the authorities in virtually every EU member state, Saudi Arabia’s GAC and China’s SAMR, as well as in Brazil, Egypt, Morocco, Serbia, Singapore, Turkey, Ukraine and many others.
- Representing clients in cartel investigations and in well over 100 merger control filings before the German Bundeskartellamt.
- Representing clients in five major cartel investigations before the European Commission and the European courts, including two of the five largest cartels.
- Securing EU merger approval of a US$3.2 billion merger between two major chemical companies.
- Successfully representing a beverage manufacturer in a landmark state aid case before the European Court of Justice.
- Defending clients in civil cartel damage litigation, including the largest cartel damage case ever brought before German courts.
- Advising on all aspects of EU law, including free movement, in a number of high-profile international arbitration cases.
Education
- Higher Regional Court of Darmstadt, Second State Examination, 2000
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, First State Examination, 1998
- University of Leicester, English Legal Studies, 1996
Admissions
- Belgium (EU List), 2021
- Germany, 2001
Languages
- English
- German
- French
- Co-author, “The Altice Judgment – Merger, control obligations, early implementation and gun-jumping”, European Competition Law Review, Sweet & Maxwell, April 2022.
- Co-author, “Redrawing the market economy operator test: EU state aid law post Frucona”, European Competition Law Review, Sweet & Maxwell, 2018.
- Co-author, “Cartel damage claims Hydrogen Peroxide SA v Akzo Nobel and others: a summary and critique of the judgement of the European Court of Justice of May, 21 2015, European Competition Law Review, Sweet & Maxwell, 2015.